Suwon is so eighteenth century...

New cities are popping up all around Korea, and that's nothing new here. Imagine this happening in Canada!

"Oh, by the way, the government has decided to build a new city here... next to the old one."

It just doesn't register, right? I mean, let's not even go down the philosophical road of how exactly one builds an entire city... sure, you can build buildings- apartments, commercial areas, parks can be landscaped... but to build a city... one usually assumes that people would be the first necessity. But it's not. You're wrong. We're all wrong. Because Koreans build cities first, and then the people come. They rent buildings for their businesses, they decide to move there because it's sexier than the old city... it just works. I doubt this would have the same results in Canada.

I live in a relatively (relative in Western terms) new city. Sure, I live in Suwon. Suwon is really effing old. But I live in a new city in Suwon. I live in Yeongtong... Suwon. Are you confused? I was when it was first explained to me, as well. Yeongtong wasn't really around 20 years ago, and today it's the "coolest" place in Suwon (again, speaking relatively). It has the hippest bars and restaurants, the nicest apartment highrises, and the highest concentration of hagwons and other educational institutes, which also means lots of foreigners. Oh, and we house the majority of Samsung workers from the headquarters... which is located just down the road.

But Yeongtong can step aside- it is not the cool city it once was. People are getting bored. They need a little more pizazz. Enter new Gwanggyo City!

These cities always look cool in the blueprints, but they are pretty much the same as any "new " Korean city. In any case, I'm interested to see how this one turns out. I drive by the construction site every day on my way to work. The best thing about this new city, in my opinion, is that it might take over the area of Woncheon Amusement Park- a place I still have nightmares about.

Anyway, this new city will be located in Northern Suwon, near Ajou University and, of course, Gwanggyosan- every Suwonite's (?) Suwonian's (?) favourite hiking spot. Stay tuned...

Happy Canada Day! Like, a week ago...

Canada Day is one of those days in a Canadian expat's life that sting a little. It's like Christmas, only slightly downgraded. You want to celebrate, you want to be with your friends and family, drinking Kieth's and eating cake and barbeque- you want to be in your country, at the very least.

There are quite a few Canadian expats in Korea. If you listen to the statistics, you will believe that there are more Canadian ESL teachers than any other English speaking nationality in Korea (they apparently like the neutral accent). However, I recently heard that more Americans than ever are coming to Korea and Koreans are starting to hire them more than Canadians- they apparently work for less. I have no idea if this is true, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

But back to my nation's day of birth.

No Canada Day is complete without the following, in my mind: Canadian music, Canadian beer (or wine, whichever), a really big cake, BBQ and friends. Of all nationalities. Because Canada is so goshdarn multicultural.

At least, this year in Korea I managed 4 out of the 5 on the list. I was among good friends, we (sorta) had a BBQ, and I made the mother of all cakes (meaning: I made my biggest cake yet in Korea- not bad for a toaster oven) and we listened to some great Canadian musicians.

Friends from all over Yeongtong came to the park the Sunday before Canada's actual birthday. An Adjuma started screaming at us, saying we couldn't BBQ in the park. We took the meat to Sophie's house and cooked it, then brought it back to the park and ate. There was a lot of yummy food. There was Canadian trivia, and finally, there was a game of beer ball. Fun times.

My New Favourite Passtime

I like taking my kittehs to Yeongtong Park!

Actually, all of the foreigners around here love the park. On sunny days we gather, unannounced- we drink, eat and are merry. On Friday nights it becomes a makeshift bar with drinks from the Family Mart down the road. We love the park. And so do my kittehs (sometimes).

Christmas is Fast Approaching...

I think I'm finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel! Progress reports are finished. Two week plans are finished. Most of my Christmas shopping is finished. My kids know their Christmas songs for the concert next week. I have the turkeys ordered for our Christmas dinner at Now Bar. My visas are taken care of for China, as are all of my hostel, train and ferry reservations. And today is Friday! Awesome!

On a much sadder note, my boyfriend has left me for the green grass of Ireland for the holidays. I can't tell you how jealous I am of him. Also, I don't really remember how to go to Now Bar or out to dinner without him. This "independence" thing will take some getting used to (and hopefully I figure it out before my trip to China in eight days).

My Mom and Dad, of course, felt that giving me money for Christmas just wasn't enough and sent a big box of goodies for Pat and I, which we opened last Friday at our own little Christmas celebration. We ate some steak and mashed potatoes (some of my best work yet- stay tuned for recipes), watched Muppet's Christmas Carol, and opened our gifts. Here's some photographic evidence:



My ornaments that my mom sent me last year. She's pretty good at finding kooky stuff for me.

Pat is like a kid in a candy store. He loves Christmas!

My mom puts so much thought into her gifts. We got P and J belgian chocolate. The J was delicious. I packed the P with Patrick so he could enjoy his on the plane. We also got TURTLES! My favourite holiday chocolate! Pat had never heard of turtles before but he soon became addicted. They were gone in about five minutes.

"Your Mom really went all out!"

What could it be? (The answer is: pajamas)

And an Eric Clapton biography. Thanks Mom!

I really love my parents. Can you tell? Merry Christmas!

December in Gok Ban Jeong Dong

This past Sunday the weather was beautiful. Usually, my Sundays are spent in bed with movies and a cup of tea except for about one hour of the day, when Patrick will go for a walk and I will attempt to clean my house.

This weekend I decided to come along for Pat's weekly walk, as he told me there are lots of dogs and people fishing. He wasn't lying! There is all kinds of farm life just on the other side of the rice fields where we never go! It was great to see animals and farmers and people fishing again- almost like being at home, except some of the farms looked like shantytowns and the water people were fishing in looked like it contained nothing but "blinkies" (insert Simpson's reference here).

Some people might find this area ugly, but for me it's a breath of fresh air from the high rises and neon lights that tend to dominate this country girl's life. Here are the pics:



The dogs weren't friendly, but they were pretty. This one wanted my head on a platter; thank God he was tied on a short rope. Or maybe that's why he was mad in the first place. All that space and he can't even run around!

The long road beside the rice fields...

The tractors are being put away for the season.

My neighbourhood is in the background; in the foreground are the remains of this year's harvest!

People had fires going and they were grilling fish as they caught them. I wanted to go down and give it a try, but Pat wouldn't let me. He probably figures I would have fallen in the water or something stupid like that. Let's face it: he's probably right.

Walkin' along.

FINALLY, I found the stupid effing rooster (and his harem) that wakes me up every morning. He is so loud. I thought he lived much closer to my house than he actually does.

Back in civilization....

Or are we....?

Here is the kitteh that lives in the grocery store. We say hello to her every morning on our way to the taxi stand. She likes Kerri more than me.

Annnnd here is my street! You can see the hagwon (private kindergarten) in green, the grocery store I like to frequent and my apartment building at the end of the road. I am on the second floor to the right.

Happy December!

BBQ and Softball in Yeongtong

So I've already talked about how great my Saturday in Everland was spent, but in all actuality, my Sunday was also pretty epic. A bunch of Now Bar people got together at a school in the area to make use of their sporting facilities. The plan was to celebrate our friend Andrew's birthday with a BBQ and a game of softball, but Andrew didn't even show up in the end. I still don't know what happened there! Anyway, though, the game went on and so did the BBQ and the Cass-ah drinking. It was totes fun.


My friend Veronica has a hedgehog! This one is not hers. But it belongs to her friends, who I met at the game. They had their two hedgehogs on an outing, and they were the cutest things I've ever seen. I kinda want one (...NO Janine, STOP).

Mich brought out his diggery doo. He's a pretty talented guy. Nova Scotian, too. Go fig.

To my delight my two yoga buddies showed up, too! I was so happy to see Grace and Rachel (I should note that Grace and I became friends while in Korea through my brother's girlfriend, who is good friend's with Grace's sister back in Canada...very random, eh?)

Ciara and Michelle taking a break from the festivities.

I'm saying "for God's sake, why don't you just SMILE at the damn camera?" all the while failing to do so myself. I'm such a hypocrite.

My pal Jeremy was purposely missing out on the ultimate frisbee game until people started taking off articles of clothing. Suddenly he was gone to play and we were all left looking puzzled.

Me and Patrick and Michelle and Kim were the only ones not playing ultimate frisbee by the end. I'm not coordinated at the best of times, but after two beers with a new pair of glasses and it being nighttime, I would have hindered the team rather than helped. Actually, I hindered my softball teamearlier in the day. And every sports team I've ever been on, for that matter.

The frisbee game was divided into the girls against the guys. This is the winning picture! I'd show you the guys' losing picture, but they had lost their pants by that time.

Suwon in the Springtime

When it's not raining, the weather in Suwon is absolutely beautiful these days. No cold wind, 20 plus degrees, gorgeous cherry blossoms and flowers are starting to bloom, and I just can't get enough of the outdoors. It's unfortunate that I still need to use a heater by my cubicle in the teacher's lounge at my school, which is located in the basement of the building. It's so freaking cold down here! Still! I've quite honestly been going outside to warm up, which is a first for this Cape Bretoner- especially in the month of April. We usually still have snow at home.

That being said, my three hour lunch breaks have been heavenly, and my coffee always tastes extra good when I drink it outside, soaking up the sun's rays and basking in the wonderfulness that is the end of the shortest winter I've ever experienced. My coffee buddies enjoy the warmth and sunshine as well. Here's Kerri and Charlene enjoying their caffeine.

Japanese Eats in Yeongtong

There's a place down the road from my school that my coworkers and I like to frequent. It's reasonably priced, it tastes great, and, honestly, they give you so much food. I can never finish a full meal there. The staff is friendly and the latest Korean pop hit is always playing in the background. Totally my kind of place.

They specialize in Japanese food, but really, their menu could easily be Korean if they took the sushi away. Nearly every dish is a variation of donkass, or, breaded and fried pork cutlet. I personally love donkass. It's comforting, filling, hot, and it always comes with a cabbage salad and some delicious kimchi (really, what's a Korean meal without kimchi though).

This was my choice of the day. Donkass filled with sweet potato, accompanied (as always) by miso soup, rice, and pickled radish, onions, and kimchi. It's was deliciousnan. Except for the corn salad which you'll see at the top right- I can't eat that stuff. When did it become kosher to mix fruit, potato, corn, and marshmallow-ey sweet dressing? Sidenote: my pal Lisa loves that salad. Different strokes for different folks.

Tracy got something more akin to bibimbap. Mixed greens and vegetables, rice on the bottom, topped with raw tuna and drizzled with red pepper sauce- a nice Japanese twist on an old classic.

Anna went for the sushi-noodle bowl combination. Thick, Japanese noodle soup served with eight pieces of mixed sushi accompanied by salads and sides. Her one complaint was that she mixed too much soy sauce with her wasabi paste. She's an old pro.

Charlene got a normal piece of donkass which came resting on top of a spicy mixture of stir fried vegetables in a red pepper sauce. It looked really good; I'll have to get that one next time.

So why don't you give your local Japanese place a try? I bet you'll like it, even if you're squeamish about sushi.

Night Out with the Boys

I've developed a nasty habit of posting pictures for a long time before posting any explanation for said photographs. Sorry! I have to do all of my blogging from school because, although I have a computer at my apartment, the hard drive is broken somehow. I need to see about getting it fixed. Please cross your fingers for me!

So on Saturday night Lisa and I went out with our new favourite Korean guys, Jack and Steve. Lisa met Jack at a Family Mart after barhopping in our neighbourhood one night and they planned to go for drinks together, then somehow I got thrown into the scenario as did Stevo. I'm glad though, because these are the first Korean guys that I've actually been able to get to know on a more personal level, and they're great!

This past Saturday we went to see the movie "Jumper", which was... well... I didn't hate it and frankly I'm surprised. After the movie we went to find a decent norabang place and we came across this "Multi Club" in Ingyedong- dance club and bar with private norabang rooms. The best thing about our room? The norabang screen had a live feed to the dancefloor, and since the club was empty Lisa and I took turns laughing at each other dancing on the screen. Here's Lisa, the red blob:

I got such a kick out of this thing.

The whole club had a very retro feel to it. We ordered dokbokkie and soju which, in my opinion, is, like, the best Korean culinary combination. Akin to wine and cheese, or guinness and fish n' chips.

Stevo is quite the singer! He surprised us all with his lovely vocals.

I'm not sure what's going on in this picture. Jack did some Big Bang (only the greatest Korean hip hop band since ever) and I was totes digging it. After norabang we went to a bar in our neighbourhood for, surprise surprise, more soju and some serious political discussion involving what their time in the army was like and me blurting out "Korean guys think white girls are easy, don't they?" Jack and Stevo have spent a lot of time in Canada, so obviously they know the "rumours" are not entirely true, but they sure took their time answering my querie! Their silence was confirmation enough.

Sex, Drugs, and Norabang

We're pretty much famous.

Hot Friday Nights

I admit, and apologise, for being very lame. I know. I don't have any money til tomorrow and I just haven't been venturing too far out of my neighbourhood. Last Friday night we had a little "getting to know you" gathering for all of our new teachers. "How does one get to know one?", you may ask. You obviously play kings. Duh. For those of you who have never played kings, you basically make up rules for every card in a deck of cards, throw them face down on the floor, and randomly pick cards while applying said rules while drinking. The game also goes by the name of Sociables.


This bone is Fozzie's addiction. He guards it with his life!

Cards, booze, and all of us on the floor.

Deciding on the rules.

Tracy and Sam.

Kim has insider's information on the good card locations.

Fozzie's all like, "stop playing cards and pay attention to meeeeee".

Then of course we moved on to play Asshole. President once again! I rule at this game. And my modest attitude just can't be beat!